Our parish capital campaign, begun in September, entered its final phase in late November.  Progress over the past few weeks has significantly picked up following slower returns in early October.  As of mid-November the “advanced” and “special” phases netted pledges of over $700,000.

Most of this was accomplished via visits or phone contacts made by our nearly 40 volunteers.  Jim Elliott, our volunteer coordinator, made an additional request for pledges in mid-November.  By the end of November pledges approximated $900,000.

The focus of this campaign, as reiterated in recent communications, is to purchase nearby properties and modify those properties to address the immediate expansion needs of our church, school, and parish office facilities.  We recently made our fourth acquisition on the block, directly behind the school building.

Much credit goes to our property and development committee -- Jim Elliott, Marge Mecca, Tom Fero, Jerry Kane, Chris Claudy and Albert McCarthy -- for working through this complex project. In particular, Tom Fero and Bill Buffington (vice chair, pastoral council) have spearheaded fruitful dialogue with our neighbors.

All of this, of course, is intertwined with the capital campaign, which is the root of the “treasure” portion of our stewardship efforts.  The “general” phase of the campaign will be ongoing for the remainder of the year.  For this phase, Father Sharrett is sending letters to parishioners who were not contacted previously, asking consideration of a pledge.  One suggested target is $1,500 over a total of five years.  As Jim pointed out in his mid-November update, this amounts to “daily coffee money.” 

Difficult times, economic and otherwise, have understandably hampered the campaign, and it is hoped that this long-term approach will enable many parishioners to participate.  It is expected that the general phase will put us over the $1 million mark.

We are grateful to Jim Pukys of Cunneen Parish Fundraising, Inc. for his skill and hard work on our behalf.  As he is accustomed to doing, Jim spent several weeks away from his Ohio home to provide us with direction.  A veteran of many such campaigns, Pukys says, “your volunteers are of the highest quality, and great to work with ... especially in such difficult times.” 

In addition to the leadership of Pukys and Elliott, we have benefited greatly from the organizational efforts of Rich Pia (advanced phase) and Belinda Fero and Kathy Anderson (special phase).  They each echoed Pukys’ praise of our volunteer contingent. Belinda added, “I have enjoyed this effort not only for its outcome, but for the opportunity to meet many more people and, as a result, get much more connected to the parish.”  Her sentiment nicely captures the essence of stewardship.